Substack Is Riding High, But Is The Platform Sustainable?
Medium’s first profitable month ever was in August 2024.
It took a dozen years. 12 years before one profitable month!!!
Imagine finally getting to that milestone only to get your butt kicked by Substack which has jumped from 3 to 5 million paid subscriptions in the last year. And yes, such is the way it goes in the world of social media - many platforms come and go while a few seem to outlast them all like cockroaches, which have survived about 320 million years. Facebook is a cockroach for example. Hehe… I kid I kid - I love Facebook. I do. I also hate Facebook, but I digress…
I asked my daughter Lacey Cohen who has an English degree from the University of Michigan (with a minor in gender studies) and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and publishing from Long Island University about Medium and Substack. I asked her where she has chosen (and continues to choose) to write. Her response:
“Substack, it’s more accessible and has way more users. Medium’s monetization is much better in theory, whereas on Substack your subscribers have to pay in order for you to make any money, but there are WAY fewer users on Medium making it near impossible to break even (it costs $50 for a membership and you can’t make any money unless you’re a member).”
Now that’s just one person’s opinion and Lacey is writing novels and for online publications, so she has other writing priorities. So someone whose primary platform is Medium or Substack might have different thoughts on this, but I knew she’d have an opinion. Substack is hot right now - there’s no way it’s not having an impact on Medium which isn’t the one with all the buzz at the moment. I don’t know that Medium is getting its butt kicked but perception is a bit of reality isn’t it?
Substack Flaw #1
But I think there’s a potentially fatal flaw built into a platform like Substack for those intent on monetizing and I found the perfect note to give voice to it ON Substack.
I don’t know Josh but I came across this and thought it was pretty good. I asked him if I could use it for a blog post and he agreed - I just subscribed to his Substack. Here’s the link - I’m providing it on the strength of this insightful take - give him a follow!
Basically, if everyone is a writer, then no one is a writer… If everyone is charging and everyone is paying, then everyone is paying, and everyone is charging. There may be a tipping point on a platform that has zero barrier to entry.
Now certainly the cream will rise to the top so if you have awesome content and you work really hard you can build a following and some income. No doubt.
**Sidenote: It won’t be easy - Substack’s user interface is social (kind of a Twitter/Bluesky scroll), which keeps people hanging out there on the platform, but it’s not all that discoverable. No hashtags or trending topics really. No typical social algorithm (I don’t think) which is actually refreshing, but I have yet to have a post take off even a little on Substack. Maybe I’m doing it wrong. Lol.
And, as someone mentioned in the replies there is plenty of free content with people writing for the enjoyment of it. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that. I’d argue that that’s the only sustainable way TO write to a certain degree. No one should start writing mainly because they think it’s the way to make money.
Flaw #2?
But here’s the second flaw: What if you spend all your time and effort to build on Substack only for a hotter, better platform to come along and leave Substack a ghost town? Maybe Substack will indeed prove to be another cockroach. But is it really that unlike Medium? Or Patreon for that matter? Just in terms of a platform where you can post content with a nice subscription model? I mean that’s really what these all are right?
Well, not quite.
The second flaw is NOT potentially fatal for THIS REASON:
You can export your subscriber list from Substack to another platform! So if Substack takes a nosedive you can take your people with you to continue building elsewhere. That’s a big deal. With Substack you can export the list in a CSV file with the emails, the user names, the subscriber status (free or paid) and the date they subscribed. Medium allows an export but Medium’s gives you a file with just email addresses. That’s it.
Doug’s Strategy
So here’s Doug’s predictable punch line, and what is driving MY Substack strategy. I’m NOT putting anything behind a paywall on Substack. In fact I’m barely writing on Substack at all. I’m using Substack as a newsletter delivery for my blogs HERE on M10 Social. I’m still putting my eggs in the basket of MY website. MY owned online asset. I’m engaging on Substack and finding some interesting things to read. I’m contributing to the community by being social. But my goods are still here, not there. And that’s the predictable part I’ll always preach. Take care of your owned online assets. Granted I already had this website that I’ve been working on for years. If I didn’t, would I go start a new one instead of going all in on Substack? I guess your answer would depend on your goals.
With Substack you do have options for that decision. It’s less risky than other social media platforms of the past, because you can build another owned online asset using Substack. Yep - that subscriber list is an owned online asset because it’s yours to take with you if you wish. Kudos to platforms like Substack and Bluesky who allow you to take your stuff with you. Like Sting said, if you love somebody set them free!
What do you think? I think we explored a different question than the one we started with. The question for all of US isn’t whether Substack will be sustainable, but rather how can we use Substack in OUR strategy to make OUR strategy sustainable? I think we have some answers. Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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M10 Social is owned by Doug Cohen in West Bloomfield, MI and provides social media training and digital marketing services from the Frameable Faces Photography studio Doug owns with his wife Ally. He can be reached there at tel:248-790-7317, by mobile at tel:248-346-4121 or via email at mailto:doug@frameablefaces.com. You can follow Doug’s band Vintage Playboy at their Facebook page here. You can also visit our other business Detroit Jerky at the website www.DetroitJerkyLLC.com!